Harold Alexander Silva is the newly elected President of the Florida-Colombia Partners. He is also the Chief Operating Officer at Claudia’s Flowers, LLC; an adjunct faculty member at Florida International University’s School of International and Public Affairs; and has been an adjunct instructor at Miami Dade College’s School of Social Sciences. His higher education experiences included being the Campus Director of the Institute for Civic Engagement and Democracy at Miami Dade College. He served as the Executive Director for the Latin America and Caribbean Region at Service For Peace. He developed and led various national teams throughout the region, which included Brazil, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua.
He earned an Executive Masters of Public Administration with a Certificate in International and Comparative Public Administration, Bachelors of Arts in International Relations, with a concentration in Latin America and the Caribbean, and minor in Business; degrees from Florida International University. He completed his associate in arts at Miami Dade College.
Harold previously served as Partners of the Americas- Florida Chapter’s Secretary. He has been a member of the chapter since 2009 and has served in organizing various programs and projects in hosting international visitors.
Jorge Fabian González Ruiz is the newly elected Secretary of the Florida-Colombia Partners. He was born in Bogotá, Colombia and has lived in different regions of the country and in the US. He has a bachelor’s degree in foreign languages and is an active fellow of the alumni for the Department of State. He has been working for Peace Corps since 2015 first as a Language & Culture Coordinator (LCC) and currently as Master Trainer (MT).
Fabian has experience in bilingual education which includes research–“Creativity in Bilingual Teaching for New Generations“; curriculum development, educational technology training, and extensive work in the field of teaching Spanish and English as foreign languages. He has been a recipient of several small grants, including travel grants for programs related to bilingualism, special education, inclusion, and diversity. He is a Co – author of the first manual for the volunteering program of the Centro Nacional de Aprendizaje (SENA 2014).Fabian has been involved with the Partners of the Americas organization for the past 16 years serving as a member of the Florida & Colombia Chapter. He has supported Education & Culture programs while coordinating the Youth Ambassadors exchanges for about 2 years.
Patricia Galbreath is Florida Partner’s Executive Director. She received her M.Ed. from Stetson University (2012) and has BA in elementary education. She has taught elementary education, and served as an academic coach and workshop facilitator in the Volusia County school system for 25 years.
She has been involved with Florida Partners as a project leader with Nury Penagos for the “Our Birds Are Your Birds, Too” collaboration, beginning in 2008 and continuing for six years. The project facilitated interactions between the teachers and students of Blue Lake Elementary and Eduardo Umana Mendoza mega school in Usme, Bogota. This led to increased participation with the service organization supporting the goal of strengthening our relationship with our Colombian Partners.
John Schoch is the Regional Liason for Florida Partners. He has served as Vice-President of Florida Partners and Treasurer of the Sunset Civitan Club of the Daytona Beach area. He retired after serving as Community Development Director and Assistant City Manager for South Daytona, FL. John has a B.A. (International Relations) and an M.P.A. (Public Administration) and has served as a Peace Corps Volunteer. He is a member of Friends of Colombia, First Coast Returned Peace Corps Volunteers, and Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of South Florida.
As a member of the Florida Partners since 2006, John’s service has included past President, Vice-President, and Regional Counsellor. As president, he sees opportunities for the chapter to better utilize national POA programs consistent with the central POA mission: to connect, serve, and change lives through teamwork and impactful projects with our Colombian and other Latin American partners.
Marcy Galbreath has been FPOA’s webmaster since 2014. She is retired from the University of Central Florida, where she taught undergraduate writing in the Department of Writing & Rhetoric. She gained web development experience while working on her dissertation digital project, samsulahistory.net.